SB Nation User Blog: HighSchoolSteeler

To the Ben Haters

HighSchoolSteeler — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 01:19:09 -0000

Beerman you especially.

Now, I'll admit that right now Ben is at a low point in his career aside from his 2006 fiasco, but you seem to forget that 95% of all great Quarterbacks have their stretches.

Look no further then our own Terry Bradshaw, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, to name a few. All of those guys, at some point had seasons where they couldn't get the job done, or just flat out sucked. I'd put money on the fact that if the Steelers would've won tonight people like Beerman would've stuck their nose through the BTSC door. The point remains, as was said by Mike Tomlin earlier this year, great teams (in this case player) overcome adversity. Ben has to get through this. He's proven multiple years in a row that he can play football. He went undefeated as a rookie (until the playoffs), he won a Super Bowl in the second year of his career, he went to the Pro Bowl, and he's set franchise records. Now all that remains is getting out of this streak of bad play. May I remind everyone that aside those two throws, Big Ben was playing like a pro bowler, leading us down the field time after time, and getting points on the board. As to the question what now, I think that if necessary put Leftwich in there until Ben is 100%, but I still think that one good game from him will set him back in place.

Let's also not forget that for the first time all season, our Defense was not at their best game. A large part, at least I think has to do with the fact that LaMarr Woodley wasn't in there to provide that added push on the opposing O-line. God Speed on his recovery.

So, to people like Beerman, you need to calm down and stop freaking out over our current situation. We're still in first, we still have one of the league's top Defenses, and our team is still a legit threat at the Super Bowl, end of story.

A New Breed of Stupidity

HighSchoolSteeler — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:08:00 -0000

Well Colts fans and several of there radio stations have just descended a notch down the evolutionary ladder and have created this website, in an attempt to attack us Steeler fans. The site is lame, even for a trash-talk site. Don't check it out if your easily offended though (I'm sure no one here will be bothered by it) cause it's some pretty high school-styled (vulgar) humor, trust me I would know.

Rumor Has it

HighSchoolSteeler — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 02:16:33 -0000

on the NFL Network that we are one of the four teams in leading contention at the current time for DB DeAngelo Hall. Remember that he was the guy who was saying he'd shut Hines down in '06, and then Ward torched him with one shoe, Thoughts? Is this cause Mcfadden is down? I doubt will get this guy and as the NFL's number 1 pass D, do we even need him? Let me know.

As Usual, My post game thoughts...

HighSchoolSteeler — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:03:33 -0000

Well, I'll start off by congratulating our team on a well-earned victory today.

I'd like to see the Leftwich naysayers now. But on that topic, I gotta say, if playing Leftwich for the next couple games is what it takes to get Roethlisberger back on track, then by all means, do it. Now, I'm not gonna pull a beerman here and say that Ben's no good; he's still a premiere QB. However, he has fallen into some bad habits of hanging on to the football way too long. Whatever happened to the good old days when he would roll out of the pocket? Has Arians prevented him from doing that anymore? But anyway, Ben needs to take a leaf out of Byron's book; stay calm in the pocket but at the same time get rid of the ball quickly.

On to the Defense. He kicked ass. pass rush, run D, pass coverage, you name it we did it, with flying colors I might add. Whatever the Skins put up we knocked down. Farrior (was the free agent pickup of the week for me in fantasy football; I only won because of him) had a monster game, as did Woodley (ripped apart Campbell) and Harrison. I also liked what Timmons turned in at the end there. That sack was great and I can't wait to see more of him.

Major props are in order for new long snapper, Jared Retkofsky, who took all the bs that he had to deal with on the ST line, and did a hell of a job snapping the ball backed up on his own endzone, not to mention the rest of the game.

The only negatives that occured to me were injuries: Ben, Heath, Big Snack was a little gimpy.I'd also like to see Sweed utilized a little more, now that they're actually running him in formations.

But otherwise, great game against a very good team, and I look forward to our battle with the Colts next week.

P.S. Go Obama.

Check this out

HighSchoolSteeler — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:20:52 -0000

Check this out

Thoughts?

Check this out

HighSchoolSteeler — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 20:13:10 -0000

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/rumors/post/NFL-looking-to-expand-to-18-regular-season-games?urn=nfl,119065

Nothing of interest below this line.

75 words

Another Prospect

HighSchoolSteeler — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:05:40 -0000

You may remember the post I made on Alex Mack, well here's another guy we could snag and really benefit from.

Charles Scott, LSU RB, 5-11 221, Age 20 (21after draft) Projected Round 3: Now I know what you're thinking: "Hell no, we just drafted a major RB prospect out of Illinois, there's no need to get another one. Especially since the emergence of Mewelde Moore." Those of you who are saying that have a valid point, and I of course agree with you. However, think about the future; M&M is already 26, Parker 27, Mendenhall is still young and I believe very valuable (to be completely honest, if I had to pick between Scott and Mendy I may just very well have picked Scott-that doesn't mean I think Mendy is a mistake). By the time Parker is 30, Mendenhall will be 24, M&M 29, and Scott 23. What does all this mean?

I find it necessary to have a power back on our football team, and with our style of smashmouth football Scott would be a nice fit to a goal line and 3rd down situations ealry on in his career. The next year, when Parker and M&M are both in there 30's and Mendenhall is 25, we can have Mendy and Scott take the majority of the handoffs. Take a look at Scott's highlights and numbers:

Scott is a 20 year old Junior who has elected to enter the NFL after his Junior year. In my opinion, he may even be able to take over a FB. Nothing against Davis, but this kid is punishing (I have no idea how he blocks). Let me know, I know it's not ideal, but personally, I think this kid has home run talent and would be a steal in the third round. If in fact teams are willing to take him earlier then the third then it would be stupid to pursue this idea. That's why it is an advantage if he does live up to his word and come out this coming draft, as he wont have the monster numbers to earn him a day one slot but his potential could easily be first round material.

I know it's early, but here's a rough draft look at what I think would be a few ideal selections for next years draft.

Round 1: Alex Mack, C Cal

Round 2: Herman Johnson, G LSU

Round 3: Charles Scott, RB LSU

Round 4: Best DL available OR Ramses Barden, WR Poly-Cal-I believe a division 2 school but this guys numbers are incredible.

Steeler Nation, We got another One

HighSchoolSteeler — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:00:26 -0000

Well, as many of you remember, I live in NY and had a heated debate in my fantasy football league of whether FWP was the real deal or not. Obviously I was defending Parker. Now in that same league, another moron (another Jet fan) is trying to tell me that Polamalu may be a good player but is not worthy of being considered in the NFL Elite. Here's the chat transcript (please bear with the poor grammar, this is AIM we're talking on here):

It starts off with this. A good friend of mine (Xavier aka xavphenom), an actually highly intelligent kid, said this in response to my statement that Polamalu is equivalent in status to some other great names...

Tim (me), u know that's total bulls**t. Polamalu is a good player, but he doesn't deserve to be included in the same sentence as the likes of Brady, Manning, LT, and Westbrook. I can think of over a dozen better defensive players then Polamalu.
[the conversation was taken on to the instant messenger]

Steelerlad777 (9:45:49 PM): Xavier that's not bull s**t. Polamalu is to defense to what Manning is to offense. I'm not talking just about numbers, which Polamalu has plenty of-for god sake he has 4 pro bowls-but I'm also talking about impact on opposing teams. It's a known fact that coaches design plays just to counter what Polamalu is doing. You can't say that about many defensive players at all. The last person who was like that was a young Ray Lewis.The only downside Polamalu has is that when he plays too wild he ends up hurting himself, and even at 85% he's a top safety. At 100% hands down the most influential defender in the game.

So once again Xavier your logic has no credibility as all you do is base your reasoning off of statistics.

xavphenom (9:46:25 PM): where'd u get that a Steelers website?

Steelerlad777 (9:46:33 PM): nope typed that myself

xavphenom (9:46:43 PM): hahahah

xavphenom (9:46:53 PM): I can already think of a better safety

Steelerlad777 (9:47:00 PM): CBS, FOX, and EPSN announcers agree with me

Steelerlad777 (9:47:12 PM): Kerry Rhodes is good but he's not Polamalu

xavphenom (9:47:15 PM): but those guys are retards

xavphenom (9:47:21 PM): not Rhodes

xavphenom (9:47:27 PM): Bob Sanders

xavphenom (9:47:35 PM): best safety

Steelerlad777 (9:47:54 PM): no Sanders is also a beast but he's still not Polamalu

xavphenom (9:48:00 PM): Sanders is better

xavphenom (9:48:32 PM): Sanders is reigning defensive player of the year, and just his presence strikes fear into the hearts of other players

Steelerlad777 (9:48:33 PM): Come talk to me when you find another player who teams actually spend large chunks of practice preparing for one player

Steelerlad777 (9:48:59 PM): I agree that Sanders is a monster but again he's not a Polamalu

xavphenom (9:49:06 PM): with Bob Sanders the Colts have the #1 ranked rush defense

xavphenom (9:49:16 PM): without him they have the #27

Steelerlad777 (9:49:34 PM): that's because the Colts suck

xavphenom (9:49:46 PM): u could take Polamalu off the Steelers and it wouldn't destroy their team

xavphenom (9:49:52 PM): because he doesn't matter

xavphenom (9:49:59 PM): he can easily b replaced

Steelerlad777 (9:50:35 PM): i know that the team wouldn't be done with but they hurt badly without him, just look at the second half of last year.

[here comes the war of copy and paste what we found off websites]

xavphenom (9:50:55 PM): He was drafted by the Colts in the second round of the 2004 NFL Draft. He played college football at Iowa.In his NFL career, Sanders has earned two Pro Bowl selections, been named AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year and earned a Super Bowl ring in Super Bowl XLI. Nicknamed "The Hitman" because of his hard hits and tackles. Another nickname that has stuck is "The Sandman" because of his last name.

xavphenom (9:51:33 PM): Sanders started the first 10 games of 2005 and earned a reputation as one of the NFL's top hitters at the position. He made 92 tackles on the year and was chosen to play in the 2006 Pro Bowl at Free Safety position for the AFC Team. He is the first Defensive Back to make the Pro Bowl for the Colts since moving to Indianapolis

Steelerlad777 (9:52:01 PM): If you think Polamalu is replaceable then your out of your mind. I'll look up some of Polomalu's numbers

xavphenom (9:52:18 PM): He was soon dubbed "The Hulk", due to his reckless and punishing hits on opposing players which prevented many of the big plays that the opposing teams might have otherwise made happen. The Colts had the worst rushing defense in the NFL statistically, allowing at least 100 yards rushing in every game. During the playoffs, however, Sanders continued his comeback from injury, and breathed new life into the defense. The 2006 Colts in the playoffs, with Sanders, had the second best run defense with only 73.3 rushing yards allowed per game. Sanders went on to help the Colts, on the road, to their victory in Super Bowl XLI.

xavphenom (9:52:22 PM): read that

xavphenom (9:52:54 PM): just like i said

Steelerlad777 (9:53:18 PM): yea Polamalu is the same in every aspect aside from the part that the Steelers have an amazing run defense to begin with

xavphenom (9:53:43 PM): yea so Sanders is a more valuable player

Steelerlad777 (9:55:24 PM): again look at what happened to us after he went down for the season, we did not play well, I won't argue that the Steelers can't function without him, but when it comes down to who's more of an impact player on opposing teams, no one is better than Troy Polamalu

Steelerlad777 (9:56:02 PM): Polamalu was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers 16th overall in the first round of the 2003 NFL Draft. The Chargers, who had the 15th overall pick, had a major need at safety to replace the departed Rodney Harrison but instead chose to go with quantity over quality forgoing the opportunity to select Troy by trading down and getting Sammy Davis and Terrence Kiel. The Steelers, ecstatic that Polamalu slid past the Chargers, quickly made a move to bring Polamalu to their team. The Steelers believed so much that Polamalu could have a positive impact on their defense that they traded up from the 27th spot to the 16th spot, originally held by the Chiefs. The Steelers traded away the 92nd and 200th overall pick for the rights to switch first round picks and select Troy Polamalu. Essentially the trade was Polamalu for Larry Johnson, Julian Battle and Brooks Bollinger (the Bollinger pick was subsequently traded to the Jets in the same draft). He has the distinction of being the only safety ever drafted by the Steelers in the first round.[1]

Steelerlad777 (9:56:11 PM): I can use wikipedia too

xavphenom (9:56:25 PM): already readf that 5 minutes ago

Steelerlad777 (9:56:48 PM): Polamalu's blend of speed, anticipation, and instinct makes him a standout player who seems to be involved in almost every defensive play. The Steelers often use Polamalu in different packages. He may blitz the quarterback, come on a delayed blitz, or pretend to blitz and drop back into coverage, confusing the quarterback. Polamalu often adds to the quarterback's confusion by turning around and walking away from the line of scrimmage before the snap. In only his 3rd season (2006), he tied the NFL record for most sacks, 3, in a single game by a safety. The 2007 Pro Bowl was his third consecutive Pro Bowl appearance; he started at safety for the AFC, playing next to the Baltimore Raven's starting free safety Ed Reed. The rivalry they share based on their teams divisional rivalry was evident, as the two battled for possession of an overthrown halfback pass from former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber; Reed came down with the interception. He also made the AP NFL All-Pro Second Team in 2005, followed by being named to the First Team in 2006.

Steelerlad777 (9:57:28 PM): Polamalu was named a reserve to 2008 Pro Bowl despite having no interceptions and only playing in 11 games during the 2007 season. Polamaulu's injury plagued 2007 season led him to partake in a California rehab program.[7] He suffered a hamstring injury late in his off season workout, causing him to miss Pittsburgh's 2008 training camp.[8] He would return to practicing with the team days after the camp's conclusion, however.

Steelerlad777 (9:57:48 PM): Polamalu has garnered several nicknames; a couple being "The Tasmanian Devil" or "Taz" "The Flying Hawaiian," and "The Samoan Headhunter".

xavphenom (9:57:57 PM): yea that means he only made it cus the fans voted him in

xavphenom (9:58:01 PM): not cus he was good

Steelerlad777 (9:58:24 PM): you can make the same agrument for Sanders

xavphenom (9:59:45 PM): how

xavphenom (9:59:55 PM): Sanders made the Pro Bowl the years he was great

Steelerlad777 (10:00:02 PM): you could say that Sanders was just voted in

xavphenom (10:00:06 PM): which was every year besides his rookie year

[end transcript]

Xavphenom, continues to go on and mock Polamalu, using vulgar terms, for his at-home hobbies, which consist of playing the piano and gardening. I'd have to admit I find that pretty humorous, but I digress. The point remains that whether NYJ fans of any non-Steeler fans believe it to be true, Troy Polamalu is a leading impact player at the highest level of football in the world.

Again I'll post my own personal thoughts

HighSchoolSteeler — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:45:05 -0000

Tough, tough, tough loss.

But hey, for 3 and half quarters we hung with and bettered the best team in football. But as it is so often for the Giants it always comes down to the wire. Next time, we'll best em for four quarters.

Positives: Our D was great and MM proved that he is one helluva running back AGAIN. Limas Sweed had some nice looking plays as well.

Negatives: The reason we lost that game was because we beat ourselves. We had them on the ropes and Willie Colon had to get called for holding on a play that would have mortally wounded the Giants. But not to take anything away from the Giants, and not to pin all the blame on Colon, as the point remains is that we lost. Some obvious other things were that the pass blocking blew, again, and partially because of that Roethlisberger sucked. Some of the blame has to fall on Ben though as he took forever to get rid of the ball. Lastly, both Bruce Arians and, I hate to say it, Mike Tomlin have to take blame as well. Putting in a LB to replace a long snapper is bull shit. A center can do the job well enough. Arians doesn't seem to understand the use of 10 yard passes on 2nd and long and 3rd and long are much better ideas then 50 or 60 yard attempts. Unless Ben was calling audibles that make no sense, Arains has to take some blame for that.

I'd also like to pray for the Smith family for the personal problems they're facing at the moment, and also for one game, one, where we get through without a significant injury.

Well I'm off to mourn our victory, damn we were close.

See you in the Superbowl Big Blue.

Wow, Holmes, way to be a professional.

HighSchoolSteeler — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:16:45 -0000

Well, this hasn't been a dull week. I just wanted to say how dissapointed I am over Holmes's possession charges. Just when I was going to give him a second chance, just when I was about to say "You know this guy has really grown up since first arrving, and being arrested twice." Boom, he goes and does this s**t. Now I don't know what all your views are on weed, and all I'm going to say on the matter is that I really don't think it'sworth anyone's time. As I have said before, and as my name implies, I am in High School, and I just came from a sandlot football game where more than 3/4 of the kids there were high, some of them are good friends of mine. Anyway, I think it's wrong what Holmes did, and whether it was his intention to use it or not, the point remains that what he did was illegal and that what ever he gets coming to him, he deserves.

Now we have a receiver who is the exact opposite of Holmes in almost every way, and that young man is Limas Sweed, who will now get some more playing time, as he and Dallas Baker split the No.3 wideout position. Sweed, is renowned by coahces and players as a class act, a guy who never talks back to a coach and is always looking to improve. I say this is a blessing in disguise, as now we'll get to see how good Real Country is.